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Diaz earns his 550th win as Bulldogs rout Vandy

The third-ranked Georgia men’s tennis team closed its regular-season home slate with a 7-0 win over No. 38 Vanderbilt on Sunday afternoon at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex.

It was the 550th career win for Georgia coach Manuel Diaz, who is in his 24th season at the helm of the Bulldogs.

The Bulldogs (17-2, 7-1 SEC) took the doubles point for an early 1-0 lead. At No. 2, the No. 59 tandem of Sadio Doumbia and Nathan Pasha cruised past Blake Bazarnik and Jeff Offerdahl, 8-3, then No. 34 Hernus Pieters and Ignacio Taboada clinched the point at No. 1 with an 8-5 win over No. 56 Gonzales Austin and Alex Divalerio. At No. 3, the Commodores’ Joe Dorn and Charlie Jones prevailed 9-8 (1) over KU Singh and Wil Spencer. It was the only win of the day for Vanderbilt, which dropped to 7-11 overall and 2-6 in SEC play.

In singles. 33rd-ranked Taboada increased the Georgia lead to 2-0 with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Bazarnik at No. 3. With the win, the Atlanta native tied Doumbia for the team lead with his 28th win, including his team-best 17th dual-match win.

No. 32 Singh stormed back from a 4-1 deficit in the first set to claim the third point for the Bulldogs at No. 2 with a 7-5. 6-4 win over Austin. Then Pasha furnished his fourth clincher of the year at No. 5 with a 6-1, 7-6(9) win over Kovrigin.

Pieters followed with a 7-6 (3), 6-4 win over Offerdahl at No. 4, then eighth-ranked Spencer made it 6-0 with his 6-4, 7-5 win over 47th-ranked Jones at No. 1. Sophomore Campbell Johnson closed out the match at No. 6 with a 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 win over Dorn.

Doumbia, Will Reynolds, Spencer, Ignacio Taboada and student manager Matt Jackson were honored prior to the meet during the Senior Day ceremony.

Georgia will close the regular season with three straight road matches beginning with Alabama at 4 p.m. Friday.

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